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Puerto Rico Governor Presses Congress for Statehood

Governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rosselló, during a June 15, 2017, address in Washington, D.C., urged Congress to listen to the wishes of the 97 percent of Puerto Rican voters who chose statehood in a June 11 referendum. (Published Thursday, June 15, 2017)

As Puerto Rico grapples with a debt crisis, its governor is pushing Congress for statehood — a move that, contrary to critics, he says is necessary to solving the territory's debilitating money woes, NBC News reported.

“We recognize there is a debt problem, we’re dealing with it," Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told NBC Wednesday. "But trying to say, ‘Hey guys, work on that and come back to us,’ is kind of ignoring the root cause of the problem, which is colonialism.”

After a June vote yielded 97 percent support for statehood, albeit with record low turnout, Rosselló has been laying the groundwork in Washington for a delegation to pressure Congress on Puerto Rican statehood.

Rosselló interpreted vague comments from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer as in support of statehood, but he needs top Republican backers to move the question forward before a busy Congress that goes on break soon.

Puerto Rico Gov. Defends Low Voter Turnout in Statehood Vote

Ricardo Rosselló, governor of Puerto Rico, defended the low voter turnout in a June 11 referendum for U.S. statehood, telling NBC's Jennifer Vasquez that it was a fair process with all alternatives provided.